Incoherent Jim Jordan is a black hole in Republicanism

Opinion echo by Dana Milbank published in The Washington Post:

On what would turn out to be his last day as House Republicans’ speaker nominee,

Jim Jordan was losing altitude. What to do about it? Why, call in the Wright Brothers, of course.

The Ohio Republican opened his 8 a.m. news conference at the Capitol on Friday with a long story about touring the Ohio home of Orville and Wilbur, seeing their bicycle shop and their “gadgets and gizmos.” He marveled at their first flight, in Kitty Hawk, N.C., noting that it “barely” got off the ground. He then reminded reporters that, over the next 66 years, “We went from two guys flying 100 feet to putting a man on the moon.”

What was Jordan trying to say with this anecdote? That his campaign wasn’t getting off the ground? That it would take him 66 years to win the speakership?

If there was any aviation metaphor to be drawn from the news conference, it was that his bombing run would continue — he said he saw nothing wrong with “multiple rounds of votes” — until he had blown up whatever vestiges of functionality were left in the House Republican caucus. Mercifully, his fellow Republicans shot Jordan down about six hours later.

After another failed speaker vote on the floor Friday morning — this time, Jordan lost 25 Republicans, three more than in the previous vote — the GOP caucus went to a closed-door conference room and pushed him to drop out. In a secret ballot, only 86 Republicans said he should stay in the speaker race, while 112 wanted him out. Nineteen didn’t even bother to attend; some had flown home for the weekend rather than participate in additional pointless speaker votes on the floor.

Rudderless GOP!

Now, the leaderless and rudderless Republicans will start all over again. The earliest they could vote on the next nominee, their third, would be Tuesday, a full three weeks since they ousted Kevin McCarthy and shut down the House of Representatives. And it’ll be a neat trick to get it done by Tuesday, with eight announced candidates (so far) in the running.

“Back to the drawing board,” a grim McCarthy said after Friday afternoon’s conference meeting. McCarthy (Calif.) blamed the seemingly endless chaos on the Republicans who ousted him, saying “the amount of damage (the chaos caucus❗)... they have done to this party and to this country is insurmountable.”

Added the former speaker: “We are in a very bad position as a party.”

How bad? Well, on the social media platform X (formerly "Twitter) on Thursday night, Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) got into a spat with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) over her vote for McCarthy’s ouster. He then blocked her. Responded the congresswoman: “This is exactly what’s wrong with this place — too many men here with no balls.”

P.S. Maine Writer- In his rambling and useless press conference, Jim Jordan is soaring towards the political black hole where Trumpzi Republicanism is crashing and burning.